Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-06
HAND VS.. BRAIN WORKERS.
Underpaid Men Who Neither Strike Nor
Complain.


Professional men, merchants and busi-
ness Inen generally, are, in large measure,
responsible for the dissatisfaction over
wages prevalent among the working classes.
1t has been the fashion and the rule for a
good many years for lawyers, physicians
and other men in the professions TO exag-
gerate their earnings. If they did not ex-
aggerate they were reluctant to admit that
they were not receiving big salaries and
their mode of living and dressing LETT the
impression that they were earning great
deal more than the facts would show. Mon
in business and the professions are secretiVe
as to what they earn, if the amount does
not justify display. A young lawyer start
| ing IN business, or a reporter on a news
paper or a clerk in mercantile establish
| ment, says nothing as to his salary, and he
| makes no complaint to the public if the
| amount is inadequate TO his support His
| silence is interpreted to mean that he is
doing well, whereas could the facts be ascer-
tanned he is probably nor doing as we'll as
many good mechanic, who receives more
| money week, and who has no hesitation
| in proclaiming that he is dissatisfied with
| the amount.
The rule of making parade of doing
well when the circumstances did not ius-
| tiiy 1t has encouraged the belief among
| mechanics and farmers and laboring men
generally that all ren in the profession
had easy times, making a good deal of
| money without much effort. This belief
| has carried hundreds of young men into
| the professions. who. bad they known the
| real facts, would have gone elsewhere to
work out the problem of life. While the
| laboring men have been grumbling about
their wages, clerks and others receiving no
| more money for as hard work, have gone
on doing all they could to create the i'm
| preston that they were doing extremely
we'll. In short, too much has been said
about the wages of mechanics and 100
| little about the wages of others.
| A great many lawyers are paid very large
| fees, and these large fees in one case be-
come q standard of judgment for all law
yers. If the truth could be known it
would be found that the salaries of the
l 800 lawyers in Chicago do not average
more per year than the wages paid to many
skilled workmen. Newspaper men in
many cases receive large salaries. but group
the newspaper workers together and the
average wages will not be greater prob
| ably, than those received by the high grade
men employed at the Stock Yards. The
| men at the Stock Yards or the mechanics
employed i'll any trade work six days
week, while the newspaper men work
seven. Mechanics and laborers generally
work stipulated number of hours per
| day. Newspaper men work as they are
| ordered, day or night. In some way the
impression prevails that newspaper men
are well paid, and that the men at the
Stock Yards are not. This is the fault
probably of the newspaper men them
selves, just as in another case it is the fault
of the lawyers, and in another case the
| fault of the merchants, who in some way
endeavor to create the impression that
their margin Of profit is large.
| But mere dissatisfaction with condition
or with pay is not in itself bad thing
| The desire TO do better, to earn more
| money, TO have more influence, to secure
the reiinements of life is a wholesome one
| If the truth had been told about profess
sional work years ago, if professional men
| had been as frank in their statements as
the laboring people, the professions would
to-day not be ovefcrowded as they are, and
| there would be less dissatisfaction among
| non professional workers. Boys would
have been more contented on the farm and
i more contented in the trades.-C Chicago
| Inter Ocean.